


Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, B-

by GothicDeetz



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Anger, Anger Management, Apologies, Forgiveness, Gen, Jokes, Multi, Rage, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicDeetz/pseuds/GothicDeetz
Summary: Lydia just wants to tease Betelgeuse for old time’s sake. He is not impressed.
Relationships: Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz, Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	1. Teasing

One aspect of the friendship Lydia and Betelgeuse had was that neither of them would play pranks or jokes on the other unless they wanted to, other jokes and pranks they played were mainly played on the adult members of the Maitland-Deetz family and, while none of them were impressed, all the jokes that Lydia and Betelgeuse played were actually quite amusing. Though they didn't feel it was right to tell them.

Lydia often liked to mess with Betelgeuse for reasons that she would not give, some which he found amusing, others he was not impressed by like Lydia's parents.

Today, Lydia felt in the mood to tease Betelgeuse about his name for old time's sake. Whether the demon would be amused or unimpressed, she wasn't sure, but she wanted to do it because she did it before and she thought it would be fun.

She sat in her room and smiled happy with her current plans to mess with Betelgeuse. Yes, she was going to tease him and yes, she thought this was going to be amusing.

"Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse!"

He appeared in the air above her and moved himself into criss-cross position, his eyes focusing on her. He'd wondered why she had summoned him. Perhaps, mayhaps, it was because she wanted to do something chaotic with him. He had to ask. "Hey, Scarecrow, did ya summon me because you wanted to play a prank on yer folks?" he asked, curiously.

"No," she replied, "just the opposite. I just got the urge to tease you. That's all."

Before Betelgeuse could respond, Lydia got right into it.

"Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Be careful what you wish for!" she chanted in a sing-song voice, adding a giggle.

"Scarecrow-."

Lydia laughed again. "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Be that as it may!"

Betelgeuse suppressed a groan as he slapped a hand against his forehead. "You just wanted to make a game out of teasing me by not saying my name three times in a row like you did when we first met, Scarecrow. That's why you summoned me here, isn't it?"

"No?" she lied, then laughed softly. "What makes you say that, bud? Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Been there, done that!"

"Lydia, look, like the last time you did this to me, this is not funny. You gotta stop. Please?"

Lydia didn't want to stop, though. She was having too much fun with this to stop with it despite a now unimpressed Betelgeuse desperately asking her to repeatedly. "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Better late than never!"

"Lydia, stop with this! Please?!" A knock on the door directed a furious Betelgeuse's attention over towards it. "Whoever it is, you can come in. I'm having a problem with Lydia!"

Adam and Barbara came in and found Lydia dancing on her bed and laughing and pointing a hand at Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse was looking at them with a pleading expression. Judging by it, the situation presented to both ghosts was worrying. And neither of them knew what was up. "What's going on here?" questioned Adam, nervously looking at the scene in front of him. "What's wrong with Lydia?"

"She won't stop teasing me about my name," said Betelgeuse in a rather annoyed tone that the Maitlands knew usually came from Lydia when she was angry about something. It was unusual to hear a similar tone come from Betelgeuse. "She's been at this ever since she summoned me and I don't know how to get her to stop. Please help me, please?"

"I'll help you with that," said Barbara. "Lydia, can you stop please?"

"But I'm having too much fun with this," the teen whined in a tone the Maitlands never thought they'd hear from her, as she stopped dancing. "What if I didn't want to stop with doing this?! Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Better the devil you know!" she chanted as she resumed dancing.

"Lydia, please," said Adam sternly.

"Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Beyond a shadow of a doubt!"

"LYDIA, STOP! THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE!" screamed Betelgeuse as loud as he possibly could.

Lydia ceased with her dancing and stared at Betelgeuse at the same time as the Maitlands turned towards him from where they were now standing. This was a tone that not one of them had ever wanted to hear from the demon. Lydia could see that his hair was a fiery red and he was starting to smolder. Was that normal for a demon? Lydia, Adam, and Barbara were going to have to consult the Handbook for the Recently Deceased later to do some research on demons as there was quite a lot they didn't know about them.

"It's... driving you insane?" Lydia questioned. Betelgeuse nodded and folded his arms. "But I thought it would be fun to tease you for old time's sake and experience a blast from the past with you. It was all in good fun, I swear!"

"Well, I didn't find it funny now and I certainly didn't find it funny the first time you did it. I'm going back to the Netherworld to calm myself down. See you guys in a week or so!" Before any of them could protest, Betelgeuse teleported away in a flash of light.

The Maitlands worriedly looked at one another then focused their attention on Lydia when they heard her start to sniffle and cry. The poor teenager was sat down on her bed with her head in her hands, looking down and rather miserable. The Maitlands both immediately knew what to do to cheer their pseudo daughter up, floating over and sitting down on the bed next to the upset teen girl.

Barbara rested an arm around Lydia's shoulder and wiped a few tears from her eyes, causing Lydia to look up at her with a tear stained face with streams of tears still pouring down her face, as Adam rested a hand on her back and started rubbing comforting circles into her back. What Betelgeuse had said to the teenager was hurtful, yes, but it was unfortunately the truth.

"That was mean of Betelgeuse to say," said Lydia, glancing down towards her bedroom floor again.

"I know it was, sweetheart," said Barbara as she pulled Lydia close to her in a hug. "But you have to accept that what he said to you was the truth. I'm not your mom or Delia but I want you to know everything's okay. Sure you were teasing Betelgeuse about his name, but did you mean to do it?"

"Uh... yeah. It was all in good fun. I wanted to remind myself of the fun I had with Betelgeuse when I first met him and decided now was the perfect time to do it."

"But you have to understand that teasing him like that hurt his feelings," pointed out Adam. Lydia looked up at him and nodded in understanding. "Now, want to talk to your dad and Delia about this and see if they can take you out for ice cream to get your mind off this?"

"I'm actually in the mood for ice cream right now so yeah, I guess. Let's go!" Lydia said as she stood up and headed towards her bedroom door.


	2. Apologies

“So, you just decided to summon Betelgeuse because you wanted to tease him and thought it was fun?” a now concerned Charles asked of his daughter. She sat across from him and Delia with the Maitlands and looked a little nervous. She didn’t know what they were going to think of the current situation. The Maitlands had explained everything in great detail with some inputs from Lydia.

“Yeah, until he got mad at me for doing it,” replied Lydia sadly, looking down. “His hair was a fiery red and smoking and smoldering. It was so scary, I didn’t know what to do. It was the scariest I had ever seen hi. In fact, it was the only time I have ever seen him be that mad.”

“But do you know why he was mad at you. Much less understand why?” inputted Delia, an expression on her face that matched that of Charles. 

“He was mad because of the constant teasing I did. It was a dumb idea, and I should have realized that doing it would make him mad before doing it. I wish I could apologize to him right now but he’s in the Netherworld for a week calming down from shouting at me earlier,” said Lydia. 

“Well, it feels like a whole week just passed by for Adam and I,” said Barbara with a grin, ruffling Lydia’s hair and making her smile. “And I have the feeling that a week has passed in the Netherworld so why don’t you summon him and see if he’s fully calmed down by now?”

“I could try,” said Lydia. “But what if he doesn’t forgive me for what I did? What if he’s still angry at me? What if he stops showing up at the house?” The rest of the family could tell Lydia was on the verge of having a panic attack and they needed to calm her down. Now!

“Lydia, honey.” Delia stood up and kneeled down in front of the panicking teenager, taking Lydia’s hand in hers. “He’ll come around and forgive you. I know that. You’re practically his best friend. I don’t think he’s ever going to hate you. I can tell you, a simple apology will fix things between the two of you.”

Lydia took a deep breath, then said, “okay, I’ll give it a try. Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse!”

When he appeared in the center of the living room, he still looked pretty pissed off. His hair was still a fiery red and now looked to be on fire. Or at least sparking like it was about to catch on fire. Lydia shrunk back, nervous at her best friend’s current state and all the adults backed away from him, nervous about what might happen. They saw that his fists were clenched, his eyes were narrowed and red in color, and his teeth were grit and grinding. Lydia gulped and became sheepish as she backed up against a wall, fearing for her safety. Her parents all saw this and knew they needed to keep her safe from Betelgeuse when and if he was in a dangerous and violent state like what was presented to them. This appeared to be a more dangerous state than they had seen him in when he killed Otho and tried to kill Charles. 

All four adults nodded at each other and positioned themselves in between Lydia and Betelgeuse. Lydia felt relieved that her parents were there for her at a concerning time like this whilst Betelgeuse just came to a stop in front of them. All four adults grit their teeth, raised their fists, and narrowed their eyes in case of a fight, which was more than possible given how even more pissed Betelgeuse looked now than when Lydia summoned him back into the house. 

“Move out of the way!” he growled in a deeper, much darker voice that they had never heard from him. Which led them to guess or believe that a demon’s voice changed drastically when they were mad, such as the case with his mother. That was one piece of demon research done. “Just let me deal with this brat and I’ll go back to the Netherworld!”

“We won’t let you harm her!” reprimanded Charles. 

“And you do not call her a brat!” added on Delia, Adam, and Barbara in unison. 

But Betelgeuse wasn’t listening. He used his powers to push them out of the way, then continued on his way towards Lydia, who was even more nervous than she was before. The poor teen was covering her face with her hands and looking away with her eyes shut, preparing for the worst. Her parents could not do anything now, he was blocking them from interfering with a force field he’d summoned with his powers. 

Lydia bit her lip as she tried to come up with a way to get Betelgeuse to stop what he was doing, then her eyes opened and she turned her head towards Betelgeuse with a mixed look of rage and panic on her face, yelling out, “Betelgeuse, stop! I have something to say to you!”

That got him to stop. He calmed down, his hair becoming a mix of blue and green as the fire died out. His eyes returned to normal as he shot Lydia an apologetic look.

“Go on,” he said. “What is it, Lydia?” 

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, running over to him and wrapping her arms around him. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as he ruffled her hair in a friendly way. “I’m sorry I teased you. It was a dumb idea and I should have thought about it before deciding whether I should do it or not. Do you forgive me?”

“Scarecrow,” he said. “I was always going to forgive you. I just wish you’d given me some time to calm down before summoning me to apologize. It’s all good.”

Lydia looked over at her parents and gave them a smile to let them know everything was okay.

The treat of an ice cream could wait. Right now, Lydia wanted to do something fun with Betelgeuse.

Just like the old times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will, unfortunately, be my last work on this account as I am switching accounts and starting over.


End file.
